European Shares Seen Opening Mixed

RTTNews

Oct. 12, 2017, 01:59 AM

(RTTNews) - European stocks may open on a mixed note on Thursday as oil prices dropped on concerns over rising U.S. inventories and the U.S. dollar extended losses to trade near a two-week low against a basket of currencies on skepticism about inflation.

Asian markets are broadly higher after the latest FOMC minutes showed Fed officials expressing a strong degree of caution over the timing of future interest-rate increases.

Investors also kept an eye on the U.S. earnings season, with the big banks led by JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo set to unveil their third-quarter quarterly earnings this week.

In economic releases, U.K. house prices moved higher again in September, the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed with a house price balance of 6.0 percent, unchanged from the August reading and beating expectations for a 4.0 percent gain.

Industrial production figures from the euro area and final consumer prices data from France are due later in the day.

Overnight, U.S. stocks eked out modest gains to close at fresh record highs after Jerome Powell emerged as the front-runner to head the Fed and the minutes from the Federal Reserve's September meeting showed a detailed debate over stubbornly low inflation.

The Dow and the S&P 500 edged up around 0.2 percent while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.3 percent.

European markets ended Wednesday's session mostly lower as the euro held gains after Catalonia temporarily suspended its independence declaration.